Mercs
The Mercs (a shortened version of Mercenaries) is an enemy faction that appear in Call of Duty: Black Ops II ''and [[Call of Duty: Strike Team|''Call of Duty: Strike Team]]. They appear to be of international origin, most notably Cuban. They are fought in almost every mission playing in 2025. They are also a playable multiplayer faction. They face SEAL Team Six on Downhill, Hijacked, Standoff, Encore, Frost, and Nuketown 2025; the FBI on Aftermath, Detour, Express, Grind, Raid, Rush, Studio, and Takeoff, and the ISA on Plaza and Slums. Background During the creation of its parent organization Cordis Die, Raul Menendez needed a private army of highly trained soldiers to conduct various combat armed actions against the militaries of Western nations. With the help of his second-in-command DeFalco, Menendez was able to recruit thousands of mercenaries to join his private army. Randomly generated names (Odysseus) *Hammond *Paige *Martin *Edwards *Suarez *Baker *Moore Equipment Due to the immense wealth Raul Menendez has made during the course of the last thirty years to fund his private army, the Mercs enjoy the most state-of-the-art weapons, equipment, body armor as well as a sizable arsenal of drone weapons. In terms of vehicles, the Mercs employ machine gun mounted Technicals painted in Digital Camouflage, unmarked UH-60 Blackhawks, as well as heavily armed MRAPs. Appearance wise, the Mercs look like a well trained, well equipped army wearing Bloodshot Camouflage fatigues, ballistic vests, balaclavas with sunglasses and a radio piece, as well as military grade ballistic helmets. Other Mercs wear an advanced optical camouflage fatigue which they wear a black balaclava with an advanced HUD and a hood over their heads. In the mission Karma, they pose as an augmentation to the Colossus security team, because of this, the Mercs wear the same uniform as the Colossus Security Crew. They also wear maroon colored beret with the Colossus emblem or a balaclava. Assault Rifles *MTAR *Type 25 *SWAT-556 *FAL OSW *AN-94 *M27 *M8A1 *SMR *Peacekeeper Shotguns *S12 *KSG *M1216 *R870 MCS (used by DeFalco) * SS-23K Light Machine Guns *QBB LSW *LSAT *HAMR *Mk 48 Sniper Rifles *DSR 50 *Ballista Submachine Guns *PDW-57 *Vector K10 *MSMC *Chicom CQB *Skorpion EVO Handguns *B23R *Executioner (used by Menendez) *KAP-40 *Five Seven *Tac-45 Launchers *SMAW *RPG Specials * Assault Shield Maps Aftermath BOII.png|Aftermath (map) Express Load Screen BOII.png|Express (map) Hijacked Load Screen BOII.png|Hijacked Plaza Load Screen BOII.png|Plaza Raid Load Screen BOII.png|Raid Slums Load Screen BOII.png|Slums Standoff Load Screen BOII.png|Standoff Nuketown 2025 Load Screen BOII.png|Nuketown 2025 Grind In-Game.jpg|Grind Downhill In-Game.jpg|Downhill Studio loadscreen BOII.png|Studio Encore loadscreen BOII.png|Encore Rush loadscreen BOII.png|Rush Detour loadscreen BOII.png|Detour Takeoff loadscreen BOII.png|Takeoff Frost loadscreen BOII.png|Frost (Map) Quotes Gallery Mercs Multiplayer Icon BOII.png|The Mercs faction logo. Wielding MSMC BOII.png|A Merc wielding a MSMC. Black_Ops_II_Launch_Trailer_29.jpg|Mercs wearing Optical Camouflage. Firing Skorpion EVO III BOII.png|A Merc firing a Skorpion EVO. Menendez_Outside_BOII.png|A Merc with Menendez in Odysseus. Merc prisoners.jpg|Merc prisoners. Wounded Merc.jpg|A wounded Merc. Merc Odyssys.jpg|Merc with Five Seven. Merc Army.jpg|Merc army. Colossus Merc Soldier 1 BOII.png|Merc Soldier in Colossus. Colossus Merc Soldier 2 BOII.png Colossus Merc Soldier 3 BOII.png|another Colossus Merc Soldier. Colossus Merc Closerange BOII.png|Mercs Soldier of Colossus in Close Range. Mercs Multiplayer Aftermath BOII.jpg|A group of Mercs in multiplayer. Merc Slums BOII.png|Merc wielding HAMR in Slums. Merc Downhill BOII.png|A Merc in Downhill. Mercs Downhill BOII.jpg|Mercs in snow camouflage. Merc Assault model BOII.png|Assault Rifle Model Merc LMG model BOII.png|Light Machine Gunner Model Merc SMG model BOII.png|SubMachine Gunner Model Merc Shotgun model BOII.png|Shotgunner Model Merc Sniper model BOII.png|Sniper Model Merc Assault Snow model BOII.png|Assault Snow model. Merc LMG Snow model BOII.png|LMG Snow model. Merc Shotgun Snow model BOII.png|Shotgun Snow model. Merc SMG Snow model BOII.png|SMG Snow model. Mercs Sniper Snow model BOII.png|Sniper Snow model. Cordis Die Mercs beta outfit BOII.png|Originally, the Mercs looked far less well-equipped than they do in the final game. Cordis Die Merc beta running BOII.png|Another pre-release Merc. Trivia *Despite being made up mostly of Cubans in the campaign, in multiplayer they are a mix of British, American, Australian, and South African soldiers. *In multiplayer, the Mercs have green in the uniforms as opposed to all orange urban-camouflaged uniforms they wear in campaign. *They wear different uniforms with winter color schemes in Downhill and Frost. *In pre-release screenshots, the Mercs can be seen in the Strike Force missions Shipwreck and Second Chance. They wear the green uniforms seen in multiplayer and their insignia is two crossed M16s, unlike in the final version of the game.